TCS Chester Jets face their first doubleheader of the season this weekend bidding to bounce back from Sunday's defeat at Thames Valley Tigers.

They have a gruelling round trip of more than 500 miles tomorrow when they take on Brighton Bears and then tackle Newcastle Eagles at the Northgate Arena on Sunday (5.30pm) in the first round of the new BBL Cup.

The defeat at Bracknall was Jets' first of the new campaign and head coach Paul Smith will be demanding an improvement tomorrow.

'We let ourselves down,' he said. 'But we have talked about it and everyone is on the same sheet. There has been a good response in training.'

Bears coach Nick Nurse has the highest regard for the Jets. He said: 'Chester are a difficult prospect, given that the firepower can come from all directions.

'It's been their strength over the last couple of years that they move the ball liberally. They don't really care who is going to get the numbers because, at the end of the day, somebody is going to.

'You can't really say you're going to stop John McCord - we've never been that successful at stopping him anyway - because you've got Calvin Davis, who's also had some big games against us.

'They've also added what I think are two very, very good guards who should complement each other in Ryan Huntley and Michael Nurse.

'You've got to try and guard them as a team and play team defence. It's tough, there's no way to stop them, you've just got to try and slow them down somehow.'

Cup opponents Newcastle Eagles reached two semi-finals last season, so coach Fab Flournoy is hoping his side can go one step further in this season's knockout competitions.

'We didn't do as well as I'd like last year, but it doesn't come much harder than beating Chester at Chester in a one-off situation,' he said.

'They are a great team and they have consistency, and although they've got a change in coach, the rest of the personnel is mostly still there. They are obviously going to be contenders for the silverware alongside the likes of Brighton, Sheffield and Towers.'

Since they met in the BBL Trophy Final in 2001, Jets have won 11 of the last 13 meetings between the teams, but Eagles' two successes both came under Flournoy last season.